Opec output soars to 29.87m bpd in Jan

London, February 13, 2014

Crude oil production from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) rose 150,000 barrels per day (b/d) to 29.87 million b/d in January from 29.72 million b/d the previous month as an increase of 280,000 b/d in still-beleaguered Libyan production more than offset drops in Angola, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, said a report.

Libyan production climbed to 530,000 b/d in January from 250,000 b/d in December after the restart of production at the 340,000 b/d-capacity Sharara field at the beginning of the month, stated a just-released Platts survey of Opec and oil industry officials and analysts.

"The Libyan situation has a long way to go to play out but this is clearly good news," said John Kingston, Platts global director of news. "Steady increases in Libyan output will help the country recover and will help bring stability to a market that is getting hit by various outages around the world."

Libyan production has been disrupted intermittently by strikes and protests since late May last year. Earlier in 2013, output had recovered to around 1.4 million b/d from virtually zero in 2011 during the uprising against Moammar Qadhafy.

Operated by Akakus, a joint venture between Libya's state-owned National Oil Corporation and Spain's Repsol, Sharara is one of Libya's major onshore oil fields and feeds the 230,000 b/d Zawiya crude export terminal, the country's second-largest.

There were also small production increases totaling 70,000 b/d from the UAE, Nigeria and Iran, the survey showed.

Angola accounted for the biggest single drop in production during January, output falling by 100,000 b/d to average 1.62 million b/d alongside lower export volumes of several key grades.

Opec kingpin Saudi Arabia shaved output by 40,000 b/d to average 9.76 million b/d in January compared with 9.8 million b/d in December. Iraqi output fell back below 3 million b/d as southern exports fell.

The oil producer group has an official crude output ceiling of 30 million b/d, in place since January 2012 and most recently rolled over in December. There are no individual country quotas. The last time Opec output exceeded the ceiling was in August last year when it averaged 30.28 million b/d.-TradeArabia News Service